Reading Mimi's original question, I'm not sure if what I'm going through
involves "sticky" music or something more akin to Attention Deficit
Disorder music. I do suspect though, that it may be an affliction common
to parents with kids who are musically active; so perhaps Mimi can recall
with her own family some of from what I speak, and others as well.
A brief perspective in time first--when I originally joined Dave's List
in 1994, my kids were pre-kindergarten and and infant ages. At that
time I wondered if they would grow up to be "musical", and I recall even
participating in a discussion thread here about it soon afterward. Well,
now they're teenagers, and that question is pretty well answered....there
is such a cacophany of pieces and themes and notes going on in my ears
and head these days because of their activities as violin students of
some seriousness. Earworms indeed....
Logistically it's something of a nightmare, with boys who attend two
different high schools (and their corresponding school orchestras), play
in two different metro area youth orchestras, having one who plays in a
string quartet, both of them in music camps and recitals, competitions
etc. But you get to encounter quite a bit of music, and if you don't
mind hearing much of it "in process," it's nothing I could complain
about.
And it's not just one's own kids either; if you have young ones in
a youth orchestra program, I'd recommend being a parent volunteer!
For the investment in time, you can sit in on rehearsals and have the
privilege of hearing a whole passel of talented young people learn their
way round some pretty challenging repertoire (see below). Then there's
the CD recordings we listen to for comparison purposes, and the YouTube
videos to pick up bowing techniques, and so forth.....
So just at this particular time, these are the live worms that are
crawling in my head and ears:
Biber's Passacaglia for unaccompanied violin
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
Nigun, from Bloch's 'Baal Shem'
Shostakovich: Quartet No. 8
Mendelssohn: 'Reformation' Symphony
Schuman: New England Triptych
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from 'West Side Story'
Much of this will change over in a few months as the boys go on to other
pieces. But the hard part will be in a few years, when the 'sources'
of these worms will no longer be living at home, and I'll have to find
other means to keep myself infected....
Bill H.
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